Sony Taking Legal Action Against Grey-Hat Hackers Who Cracked The PS3

Sony have apparently started legal action against a group of hackers who gained access to the PS3′s “root key”. The anti-piracy hackers claim to have only researched the exploit as a direct response to Sony’s remove of the PS3′s ability to run other operating systems, and subsequently PS3 homebrew applications.

As Edge report, the legal action has been brought against George “GeoHot” Hotz and several named and un-named members of the fail0verflow group. The un-named members simply go by the reference “Does 1 through 100″. The legal complaints focus on the use of the exploit for piracy, something that until now has been very awkward on the PS3.

The keys (simply long strings of digits Sony were hoping nobody would ever work out) needed to run software on the PS3 appear to be hard-wired into the system, making any kind of security update to change them very difficult for Sony. Somehow they are hoping the legal action, which includes a Temporary Restraining Order, will plug the leaks and prevent piracy on the PS3 becoming widespread.

Personally, instead of suing the people who out-smarted Sony’s security, I’d recommend hiring them. They’ve said they’re not doing what they do for piracy, and when the root key was first published Hotz openly invited job offers from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

If the cause of all this is, as the hackers claim, the removal of the alternate OS feature the PS3 was much praised for, the whole situation gains a certain irony to it: When the feature was axed Sony’s defence of the feature removal was based around “security concerns”.